As the clock strikes 12 a.m., the game begins again. Millions of people eagerly await the release of the new challenge for the day. Gray, yellow, and green colored squares motivate people to complete the new puzzle for the day. Once all five of the green squares have been revealed, players can relax knowing they have completed the day’s challenge and have to wait until the next morning to play again. 

Wordle, the new daily word-guessing game, has taken the world by storm and engulfed many into participating in the daily challenge of guessing the word of the day. Wordle was first released in October 2021 by software engineer Josh Wardle. He created the game as an app, available on the App Store, but as the popularity of the game grew, the New York Times bought the game. Now located on nytimes.com, Wordle’s popularity has grown from about 90 people playing daily in late November to over 2 million players globally in late February.

New words are released daily and users have six guesses to come up with the secret five-letter word in as few turns as possible. The game gives clues if the letters guessed are in the word and if the placement is accurate. Gray means the letter is not in the word, yellow means that the letter is in the word but not in the correct spot, and green means the letter is in the word and it’s in the correct place.

You can play the game by yourself, but the challenge is to compete with others and try to guess the word in fewer tries than they did. There really are not any formal rules to Wordle, however, users say it’s common courtesy to not reveal the word until the next day to prevent cheating and keep the game fair.

Many will send their Wordle scores to friends and other players to compare their scores and in how many guesses they were able to get the word. They have group chats where they will send their Wordle scores using the share feature on the website. This uses a combination of black, yellow, and green square emoji to represent the player’s guesses and which letters they got correctly. This feature also displays how many rows the player figured out the word in and their streak of guessing the correct word.

Some people have certain starting words like “adieu,” “heart,” or “irate” that they use to start their Wordle each day, others pick a new word to start their guesses and randomize their beginning word. Some use the strategy of using words with as many vowels to try to figure out their placements, while others use mostly consonants when guessing to reduce the remaining letter options.

Wordle is not a game targeted at a specific demographic, players can range from all ages. Kids and adults alike enjoy the challenge of having to guess the word each day, without the pressure of getting addicted to playing non-stop. Some teachers, elementary and high school, have been using Wordle in the classroom as a way for their students to play a game that is still educational and makes them think. One round of Wordle can take only a few minutes or all day, just depending on how you play the game.

While the original Wordle one releases one word per day, there are knock-off sites like Quordle, Nerdle, Worldle, and Wordle Unlimited that allow users to play more than once a day, some with an added level of difficulty. More creators are developing Wordle-like games centered around different topics to indulge more people into the game.

Wordle has changed the game for word games, bringing new innovation and creativity to a simple game. People were quick to jump on the Wordle craze and its popularity is still growing. Players are engulfed in the world of Wordle, trying to beat their own records and keep their streak alive as they await tomorrow’s word.